I’m sorry.
To those who come after me,
I wish I had left you the world in tact,
Whole,
Complete,
But it is shattered.

It was once a stained glass window,
A million different beautiful shades of the finest and richest colors,
Each section more glorious than the next,
The sun shined through it and brought joy to all it touched,
Spreading warmth,
Laughter,
And light.

First,
The window became dirty,
Then it became so tarnished one could not see past,
And very few tried to wipe the residue away,
The people talked and talked of what should be done,
But they were too late,
For the window was broke into a million pieces.

The pieces at first were as bright as ever,
But soon lacked their luster without harmony,
Without unification,
Without connection,
And in a short while there was only a glimmer of light to shine through,
A speck of hope from what used to be a beam of life,
A mere memory of what once was,
Of the glory days of the window.

Please try to pick up the pieces before their color wears,
Before the life dies,
Before all goes dark,
I know the glass is sharp,
But please bear the pain,
For I’ve endured the scrapes and bruises,
And you will too,
But maybe the ones after you will not have to go through,
What we have had to.

I will try to pick up as many pieces as I can before I leave,
But I know nothing broken will ever be the same,
For a jagged line down the center will always remain,
But that’s all I ever knew,
I wasn’t around when the shatter rang out loud,
But I hear the sound as if I was standing ever so close.

Try to imagine with me that these shards are more than shards,
That they are more than a figment of imagination,
For that’s what an unscathed world now seems,
But I promise,
It  was once a reality.

Piece by piece,
Rebuild the window,
But more than that,
Rebuild what you see,
For only then the window will stay intact for all of eternity.

The special thing about the stained glass window wasn’t only its beauty,
But how the people once saw through it,
How they looked together,
Side by side,
Into a world with promise and optimism,
And although I have never seen the view,
I sense it is something worth saving.

Now go ahead,
Carefully pick up your first piece,
And when someone asks you what it is that you hold,
Share the story of the stained glass window.

Maybe you will be the one to see the view.